I just want to say that this is a great thread packed with awesome info. I really appreciate everyones input and seeing different styles of slaying the same beast.
Allen H

Ah, you beat me to it, Allen! When I got finished reading the end of Page 2, I had decided that I was going to write "Best Thread Ever", then I got to Page 3, and you had basically already written it, and more eloquently at that. I'm going to write it anyhow:

BEST THREAD EVER! (at least from the perspective of a sound guy, ha ha!).

I hope more people add pictures and descriptions of their audio set-ups!

Iím a long time lurker but first time poster. I figured I would throw in my two cents as well. As usual I am a few days behind the rest of the world in posting.

We have several attractions and have tried a variety of systems throughout the years. We currently have 2 primary set-ups that we use.

- For our smaller attractions we use Gilderfluke SD-10ís for playback. We split the L/R channels into separate feeds so that we can feed two zones from one player. We have been using these for a couple of years with no problems at all.

- For our larger attractions we use an Alesis HD24 for playback. While it is a more expensive option, it gives us 24 audio zones in a single player. One nice feature is that several units can be synchronized to create a larger system.

With both configurations we loop the audio on the players so that they only repeat once every hour or two.

It looks like the approach to sound design here is starting long repeating loops, and letting them cycle all night. Is that the total approach, or are these systems playing the long loops in addition to more event-driven sound effects/music (such as an alligator sound triggering when an alligator prop pops out of a swamp scene)??

If you're using more event-driven sound design, what kinds of triggers/players are you using for those sounds?

It looks like the approach to sound design here is starting long repeating loops, and letting them cycle all night. Is that the total approach, or are these systems playing the long loops in addition to more event-driven sound effects/music (such as an alligator sound triggering when an alligator prop pops out of a swamp scene)??

If you're using more event-driven sound design, what kinds of triggers/players are you using for those sounds?

If you go the multi unit route, or even to maximize existing channels, as long as your soundtrack or ambient noise isnt too complex, what I did for an attraction to use multiple soundtracks with the same units was redesigned the sound to have a different unique track in the left and right channels.

For example there was one attraction inside a pavilion that needed one track, and then a woods walkthrough that needed another, so I ran only left speakers to the indoor, and only right speakers to the outdoor. A cheap way to extend the capabilities some, as long as you dont need panning effects.

Don't know about the others. but I have found that MAudio and CuBase and don't lend themselves very well to individual triggered events. I run basically an hour long loop, all of the audio tracks each loop multiple times within that hour. Our front of the house stuff (impaler, flame cannons, DC pirate, etc) are all Midi controlled from the same system and are incorporated within that same hour long loop. If you knew exactly when the loop was ending, and were listening very intently for it, you can hear the 1/2 second or so pause on the hour, but most can't hear it.

We use EFX AP16+ for the triggered prop sounds, and plan on using many more of them this season, replacing most of the MAudio system. The control over the AP16+ is fantastic and they lend themselves extremely well to prop related sounds.

Most of our self container props are triggered with IR beams with a few pressure mats. Some props we simply have on their own little loop so they trigger over and over, whether there is a customer near or not. Actors love it - not! A few props are actually manually activated.

Originally Posted by DarkTikiEntertainment

It looks like the approach to sound design here is starting long repeating loops, and letting them cycle all night. Is that the total approach, or are these systems playing the long loops in addition to more event-driven sound effects/music (such as an alligator sound triggering when an alligator prop pops out of a swamp scene)??

Instead of buying the Delta M-Audio 1010lt pci card with 8 in/outs, getting 4 for 32 channels, why not just buy the 8 channel surround cards as they alot cheaper and use something like reaper software to control? The surround cards come in any motherboard configurations (pci, pci-express..etc) the Big question is, can you control each channel via the reaper/audacity software say if you have 3-4 sound cards for 24/32 channels in the same PC unit, anybody try this? Additionally, you'd still need an ampliflier as the audio output as I don't think these pc cards have much power to drive bigger speakers...other than pc speakers.